Thanks to Verna Wilder who hosted my last stop on the Virtual Book Tour. If you haven’t had a chance to read my take on the experience of putting together a book tour, make sure to go to Verna’s blog entry.

From 7:30pm EST (11:30pm GMT) on 15 April to 8am EST (12pm GMT) on 16 April, I’ll be in the chatroom on my Virtual Book Launch site (http://mdbenoit.com/synergy) to chat with visitors.

When you visit the Virtual Book Launch site, you can learn about the book, watch a video about it, enter a contest for signed copies of Synergy, etc., but I’ll be there all night of Sunday to chat with visitors. I chose the night so that people from Hawaii to Eastern Europe could have an opportunity to chat with me either in the afternoon or evening, or even early morning. Since it’s a virtual book tour, and that I have visitors on my blog from every country imaginable, I wanted to try it this way.

Thanks to Laura from That Grrl for hosting the book yesterday. Laura posted an excerpt of the book which, I hope, whet your appetites for the rest.

This last stop is a bit different. I reflect on my experience with the book tour and what I learned and gained from it on Verna Wilder’s blog, Out of the Cube. I got to know Verna when she contacted me after one of my blog posts, and we struck a friendship, which, in part, illustrates the topic in this last post.

Verna is an introspective but upbeat woman who stepped away from a stressful job to pursue her interests in writing and the arts. She’s combining the two right now by starting a new business helping people and organizations writing grant applications for the arts. Here’s a little more about Verna:

Verna is a writer with an MA in English and a bunch of journals and notebooks filled with her writing exercises. She has published two short pieces in anthologies no longer in print, and leads writing workshops following the Amherst Writers and Artists method described in Pat Schneider’s book, Writing Alone and with Others.

She recently left a corporate job to live life outside the confines of the Cube, to let herself feel fear and doubt, to dive in anyway, to find the edges of a life where she is accustomed to acting from her base of comfort.

She helps writers find their voice in her writing workshops, and in her editing work she helps writers hone that voice to communicate what is dear to them. She started her blog, Out of the Cube, to explore her own writing voice in a genre that is new to her.

* * *

Be sure to drop in to the official Virtual Book Launch of Synergy, from 8pm EST 15 April to 8am EST 16 April and chat with me. I’d love to hear from you, know what you thought of the tour, answer your questions, and chat about little nothings (like this frigging winter weather that won’t quit). The address for the chatroom is http://mdbenoit.com/synergy/chat.htm.

Thanks to Alyx for hosting me on her blog yesterday. If you’ve missed it and want to read about the themes of the book, they’re at Planet Alyx Information Bureau.

Today, That Grrl has posted an excerpt of the book in which the two protagonists meet for the first time. Don’t hesitate to comment or ask questions about the story.

Laura (That Grrl) is a fellow Canadian. We live only about 5 hours apart, her in Toronto, me in Ottawa. I enjoy the photos she takes around Toronto. They show a real appreciation of her city. I also enjoy her quirky drawings. Here’s a little more about Laura:

Web writer, blogger, columnist, contributing writer and editor. She writes, WordGrrls, a weekly blog for writers. Her personal junk pile blog contains her rants, blabberings, stick figure grrl cartoons, and photos from her rural and urban explorations in Ontario. Laura has been online over ten years, been a self obsessed IRC diva, produced several sites andnewsletters, managed topics for online networks, created ASCII art (http://thatgrrl.ca) and generally taught herself all the web geekery she knows.

I had a fantastic time at SciFiChick on Monday! Lots of people stopped by. Great interview, Angela, thank you so much.

Today, I’m stopping at Planetalyx Information Bureau where I’ve talked with Alyx about the themes occurring in Synergy. Alyx is a fellow SFCanada author whose novel, Indigo Springs, will soon be released by TOR Books. You can read one of her stories in Strange Horizons. Here’s a little more about Alyx:

A.M. Dellamonica, author of “The Town on Blighted Sea,” (a *2006 Year’s Best SF* pick) and numerous other SF and fantasy stories, has published fiction in *Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine*, SciFi.Com’s *SciFiction*, and *Strange Horizons*, as well anthologies including the upcoming PASSING FOR HUMAN, edited by Steve Utley and Michael Bishop. A 2006 Canada Council Grant recipient for her current work in progress, THE WINTERGIRLS, she teaches writing through the UCLA Extension Writers’ program (www.uclaextension.edu and writes book reviews for *Science Fiction Weekly*. Dellamonica maintains a web site at www.alyxdellamonica.com.

Thanks for Absinthe & Cookies for hosting me. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the comment process, so I hope those of you who tried to leave a note weren’t too frustrated.

Today, I’m stopping on SciFiChick, who has a nifty blog and talks about, you might have guessed it from the blog name, science-fiction. There are comments about TV shows, book reviews, and commentary. Here’s a bit more about Angela:

Angela has a fulltime desk job for a Fortune 500 company. And occasionally, she does drawings of buildings/homes and portraits on commission. She reads every chance she gets. And she’s always up for getting books and ARCs from authors and publishers in order to review them on her blog. (Thanks to all that have!)

Portrait drawings usually take her about five or more hours to complete, depending on the level of detail/extras. She’s currently open to producing drawings from pictures on commission. Feel free to contact her for details.